Both players had a lot of chances throughout the first set, especially David, who had break point/deuce in almost every service game of Starace's throughout the first set, some very long games in service games of Starace. Potito got the first break of the set for a *3-2 lead and had the mini-break in the tiebreak, but couldn't consolidate either lead, as Nalbandian won four straight points to win the tiebreaker from *3-4. Starace played 57 service points in the first set compared to 38 for Nalbandian. After taking the first set, which took an hour, David predictably steamrolled, breaking Potito in the first game of the second set, saving a break point his first service game, and then dominating from there.

Good win in the end for David despite missing 8/9 break points in the first set. He got out of the potentially tricky situation and did what he needed to, to win the set and eventually win the match comfortably.

True............the Casablanca finalist points are coming up for him to defend and without them, he'll fall to the 90-100 range in the rankings. But Poto plays his best in European clay court tournaments so he'll likely have a couple of runs, either Casablanca or Bucharest, and be fine with his ranking.

True............the Casablanca finalist points are coming up for him to defend and without them, he'll fall to the 90-100 range in the rankings. But Poto plays his best in European clay court tournaments so he'll likely have a couple of runs, either Casablanca or Bucharest, and be fine with his ranking.

True, obviously, it's in Africa................I guess I should have said "non American" events. He plays better overseas. As we all know, he struggles on hardcourt regardless of the country he's playing in, but on clay he doesn't usually get great results in the Latin American events. So his bad record this season so far doesn't surprise me nor am I personally worried, as a fan.